Page 24 of A Spot of Tea
Her throat was tight. She tried to swallow and ended up coughing. Maybe she wasn’t ready to talk about it. “No. Never mind.”
“Oh, come on. I’m sorry. I’ll stop guessing.”
A glass of water sat on the bedside table. She probably hadn’t been drinking enough water – not enough to keep up with all the crying. She took a sip. “I was thinking of coming to visit you guys again.”
“Really? I would love that! Are you going to bring Steve this time?”
She set the glass down. Why had she called if she wasn’t going to talk about it? What was the point in hiding it from Eliza, of all people? “We broke up.”
“What?”
She cleared her throat. “It’s so bad. I can’t tell you, Eliza.”
“It’s okay! You don’t have to tell me. I’m so sorry, Mackenzie. I know how much you loved him.”
A sob rose from deep inside her chest and rocked her forward. Mackenzie tried to keep her lips pressed tightly shut, but a whine escaped.
“Mack? Are you okay?” The pitch rose in Eliza’s voice. “What happened?”
“He’s engaged, Eliza.” She swallowed back the tears and mucus in her throat. “Steve is engaged.”
“How is that possible?” She was yelling now. “He was dating you!”
“He said – well, he announced he was engaged to Addy two weeks ago.”
“What!After all this time telling you no one at work could know about you guys because it was unprofessional and…” Eliza stopped. “Oh. Was he…?”
Mackenzie got a tissue and blew her nose before speaking again. “Yeah. You figured it out faster than I did. Turns out Iwas the other woman and I didn’t even know it.”
“That can’t be right.”
“It is. I feel crazy. Like I imagined the whole relationship or something. I don’t know, Eliza. He said we were always good friends, that we can keep being good friends.”
“You didn’t imagine it! He came to visit for your birthday, and he got you three dozen roses on Valentine’s Day this year. Remember that?”
Her lips were numb from forgetting to breathe. “Oh yeah. I forgot he did that.”
“Those weren’t ‘good friends’ roses! What is the matter with him?”
Mackenzie looked down. She wasn’t crying because of the humiliation or the shame.
Well, that was part of it, but mostly she was crying because of something far worse.
She missed him.
What was wrong with her?
“I don’t know what to do.”
Eliza gasped. “He’s your manager now, right?”
“Yeah. He got promoted.”
“Ew. Wait, is hehermanager too?”
Mackenzie blew her nose again. “Yeah.”
“This is a hostile work environment.” Eliza sighed. “I’m so sorry, Mack.”
